


“What do you mean you lost the money?”

by Cockbite (personalized_radio)



Series: Assassinations and Feelings [4]
Category: The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF
Genre: Aleks gets beat up because I like to hurt him apparently? sorry aleks, Assassinations and feelings, Fake Chop Au, M/M, NovaHD - Freeform, also this is pre-fake chop! so its creatures era, pre-NovaHD at least, this is kind of....how it happened?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 10:04:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10988670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/personalized_radio/pseuds/Cockbite
Summary: “I mean,” Aleks snapped back, shoving a few extra clips into his bag, “That they fucking jumped me, beat my face in, and now the money is gone, Sly!”“We just have to get it back before Kootra finds out,” Sly said, trying to calm him, but even he sounded doubtful. You don’t lose that much money when the money belongs to a crew like the Hub. He’d seen plenty of what happened to people who lose money in his lifetime and he needed all of his fingers, thanks. He was lucky to be alive now, he wasn’t gonna push it by hoping that the Hub was gonna be understanding here.





	“What do you mean you lost the money?”

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me at [on Tumblr](https://cockbite.tumblr.com/) if you'd like! I post fake/gta!au stuff :)

“What do you mean you lost the money?”  
“I mean,” Aleks snapped back, shoving a few extra clips into his bag, “That they fucking jumped me, beat my face in, and now the money is _gone_ , Sly!”

“We just have to get it back before Kootra finds out,” Sly said, trying to calm him, but even he sounded doubtful. You don’t lose that much money when the money belongs to a crew like the Hub. He’d seen plenty of what happened to people who lose money in his lifetime and he needed all of his fingers, thanks. He was lucky to be alive _now_ , he wasn’t gonna push it by hoping that the Hub was gonna be _understanding_ here.

“I have no idea who they even were, man! How are we gonna find nearly fifty thousand dollars in,” Aleks checked his watch, “An hour!?”

“We can’t just run!” Sly shook his head, “Aleks, they’ll hunt us down and kill us.”

“They’re gonna kill us if we stay!” Aleks turned to look at him, his heart in his throat, “They’re going to kill _me_ , at least. Sly, you weren’t a part of this. You’re still safe here. If you leave like right now, just pretend you never saw me, you can -”  
“I’m not gonna fucking abandon you, dude,” Sly stared at him, affronted, “What kinda homie do you think I am?”  
“A smart one,” Aleks shook his head, tried to forget Sergiu’s face. It was fading more and more every day, soon he and Elisa would just be a regrettable memory - just one of many - but, in moments like this, Sergiu’s face was replaced with Sly’s and that was fresh. Would he leave Sly like that, if it came down to it? If their situation was reversed and Sly was the one with what could have been a cracked rib and a face more purple than skin colored, would Aleks go with him or stay with the Hub?

They’d only been with this crew for a few weeks, Aleks doubted he would have given up a trusted partner like Sly for a loose group like the Hub, but Aleks wasn’t Sly. Undoubtedly, Aleks was getting the better end of the deal out of their partnership and he couldn’t expect Sly to give up the Hub for him.

“Listen, it doesn’t like _hurt my feelings_ or some shit if you stay. This place is good, it’s _safe_ ,” Aleks zipped up his bag hurriedly. He was running out of time, he wasn’t even sure if he would make it out of the city before they put a hit out on him.

“Shut the fuck up,” Sly punched his arm - just barely, because every inch of Aleks hurt and he was sure he radiated it from his pores at this point - and turned to the bed on his side of the room, beginning to shove clothes and other necessities inside, “I’m coming with you. We’ll explain what happened when we’re out of the city, they can try to track down the money and we can just disappear.”  
“You don’t have to do this, Eddie.”

“Get your shit together, Immortal, Nova could be here any minute,” Sly glanced over his shoulder and he was teasing so that was good enough for Aleks.

Aleks knelt down and carefully crawled under his bed to get the box that he kept his important papers in. Mama Graire had set him up with a new, official-looking identity but he wasn’t sure if Alex Markov would still hold up. He’d need to contact someone who could get him newer, different papers. He had no idea who was on his trail from Russia, how long Mama Graire’s fondness for him would hold out against pressure from the higher-ups to name her source. If she got wind of what happened to Sergiu and her daughter, Aleks doubted it would hold out much longer, and now he had the Hub on top of the Russian mob to worry about.

He hissed when he twisted wrong on his way out from under the bed, his rib twinging angrily at the sharp movement. He hadn’t wrapped it yet, hadn’t done any sort of first aid. As soon as he’d got his breath back and made sure that the group of guys that had run his car off the road and dragged him into an alley were gone, he’d stolen some bike and made it to a safe house for the night so he could put some cold compresses on his eyes to stop the swelling. This morning, as soon as he’d been able to see straight, he’d taken the bike to the one-bedroom apartment he and Sly were sharing to get his shit and then beat it. Sly could help him wrap it in the car, once they were out of town, maybe.

“Speaking of any minute,” A new voice, amused and dangerous all at once, spoke up and Aleks shot up so fast that he banged his head on the bottom of the bed and his vision blanked out for just a second.

“Nova!” Sly practically squeaked, “Hey! You’re...early.”

“Luckily for me,” Nova agreed, tone easy. Aleks finally set up, dizzy, but didn’t turn to look. He really just...didn’t want to see him.

Four years of running from the mob and this is how he goes. Taken out for a run gone wrong; shit, the irony was almost poetic.

“You two look like you’re ready to head out! Goin’ someplace cool?”  
“Nope,” Sly popped the ‘p,’ “Just getting our emergency bags ready in case we have to split. Normal, every-day activities, you know?”

 _Sly_ , Aleks wanted to sigh, _Sly, you sounded convincing for like...two seconds, there._

“Sounds fun!” Nova chuckled warmly, and his tone was totally friendly but Aleks could feel the threat even without looking at him, “But, before you guys split, I’ve just got a quick question.”

“Hit me with it, Nova. Ask away,” Sly agreed, and Aleks heard the squeak of the mattress as Sly set on it. Slowly, hopefully going unnoticed, Aleks stood up.

“Where’s that fifty thou I was picking up, again?” Nova offered carelessly and Aleks finally looked at him. He didn’t know Nova very well - had only seen the aftermath of what he’d done to people and heard stories. From what he had witnessed, outside of jobs, though, Nova was a loud, funny dude who liked to fuck around. They could have been friends, Aleks had thought once, if their lives had been different.

But they weren’t, and Nova was possibly more dangerous than anyone else in the Hub, and Aleks needed to keep his guard up and be careful. He had no idea if Nova was armed and willing to threaten current members of his own crew or not.

“Um,” Sly stuttered and Aleks’ heart stopped. That was that, then.

“It’s my fault,” He found himself saying, when it became obvious to everyone in the room that Sly wouldn’t be thinking up any good excuse.

Nova turned his eyes from Sly to Aleks, and the smile dropped.

“What happened to your face?”  
“It wasn’t Sly’s fault,” Aleks repeated, “He wasn’t even with me when it happened so, like, if you’re gonna fuck me up or whatever, he wasn’t a part of this.”

“Immortal,” Nova snapped, and he was suddenly out of the doorway and in front of Aleks, tilting his face up with a firm grip on his jaw to get a look at the dark rings around both eyes and the purple that littered the rest of him. Aleks had been beaten worse than this in Russia, but it still wasn’t _fun_ to ache like this and his ribs hurt like _fuck_ when he jumped at Nova’s sudden proximity. Nova didn’t let go of his jaw, though, eyes running over his face and then down his neck and under his shirt - a loose tank he’d found packed in the safe house, “Shit, are your ribs okay?”

“He thinks one is cracked,” Sly broke in and Aleks shot him a betrayed glare, “What? I think he wants to help, man!”

“What,” Nova finally looked up to meet his eye, his eyes darkening in anger, “Happened?”

Aleks wrapped an arm around his ribs and set down on his bed carefully. His head was beginning to throb, emanating from the spot that he’d hit the bed with, “I was on my way back here last night when some guys drove me off the road. They dragged me into some fuckin’ alley and beat me black and blue and then stole everything - including the fucking car, okay?”

“Why didn’t you _call_ anyone!?” Nova demanded, “Immortal, you could have died! What if your ribs were broken, you idiot!?”

“My phone was dead!” Aleks pushed Nova’s hands away with his free arm, “And I’d just lost fifty thousand dollars, you think ‘call up the Hub’ was my first thought?”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Nova stepped away, turning to Sly, “Go get some ice and a first aid kit, wrapping his ribs isn’t safe but icing them will help and, Jesus Christ, just _call someone_ next time,”

Sly gave Aleks a _what can I do_ shrug and disappeared out of the door to do as told. While he was gone, Nova pulled his own phone out and pressed it to his ear after a few taps of his finger.

 _Oh, God_ , Aleks leaned his head against the wall when he heard someone answer the call, _This is it_ , _he’s calling Kootra and Ze and they’re gonna fucking skin me alive._

“Someone jumped Immortal.” Nova opened with, sounding angry enough that it made Aleks open his eyes again. “No, I don’t know who yet, but I’ll find out.”

He looked Aleks over again quickly, “No, he isn’t okay! He looks like someone took a crowbar to his face!”  
“Thanks,” Aleks said dryly, half offended and half relieved that Nova wasn’t making plans over the phone to have his limbs cut off.

Nova waved at him, rolling his eyes, “They must have been watching us, Dan, they ran his car off the road, fucked him up and took the car and the money both...maybe fifty-k?” he scoffed, “I’ll get it back, when I find out who the fuck did this.”

Sly came in with two cold compresses, still squeezing them in one hand to mix the chemicals inside, and a small box in the crook of his arm and Nova nodded at him, practically ignoring Aleks, before leaving the room. The door shut to him yelling, “I don’t give a fuck if they want the money right now, someone just fucking attacked our guy!” and waving his free arm around.

“Um,” Aleks started and Sly just shook his head.

“Maybe this place is gonna be a little different than what we’re used to.”

“I guess we won’t be losing any fingers?” Aleks offered and Sly shrugged, handing one compress over and opening the box to pull out a few things. Aleks lifted his shirt carefully and pressed it onto the spot that ached the most, where he was sure there was either a crack or a bruise, and bit back a pained hiss.

“Let’s just get your fucked-up face taken care of, huh?” Sly shook a bottle of cream at him, the label ripped off and ‘FOR BRUISES’ written in sharpie where it would have been. “Lay down and put these over the shiners, I’ll see what I can do for your ribs.”

Aleks groaned but did as suggested, laying down carefully and draping the second compress over his face, flinching only a little at the sting of cold against his warm skin. He felt Sly lift his shirt and adjust the compress and then familiar fingers rubbing _something_ into his skin that begun to heat up rapidly. It felt weird, awkward, and uncomfortable to have someone who he wasn’t sleeping with so close to his body, touching him in places that were as vulnerable as his painful ribs. At least Nova wasn’t in the room; he could handle this if it was Sly, but not if anyone else was with them.

Sly was just finishing up and helping him get his shirt back down when there was a knock and then someone walking into the room. He was blind with the compress over his eyes but there was only one person that it could be and Aleks found that he wasn’t nearly as scared as he had been. If Nova had meant to hurt him, he would have by now.

“That’s good shit,” Nova said, voice softer than it had been when he first showed up, “Seamus mixed it himself.”

“I hope he’s got some more at HQ,” Sly sighed, “We used the bottle up.”

“How ya’ doin’, Immortal?”  
“Confused,” He almost said, but stopped himself. _Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth._

“Fuckin’ dandy,” He grunted, trying not to move while the cream did its work. It hurt like hell, like he and Sly had just agitated everything that had already been slowly healing but he had to admit that the warmth was beginning to numb the soreness.

“Dan’s going to find out who the fuck did this,” Nova said firmly, “We’ll get our revenge.”

“And the money?” Sly asked, “It wasn’t Immortal’s fault, so -”  
“Fuck the money,” Nova said sharply, “This isn’t about the goddamn money. Some assholes thought they could tag _our_ people off the street like we’re some chump band of street thugs! I’m gonna make them wish they never saw the light of the fuckin’ _sun_ when I’m through with them. The money can come after.”

They continued talking after that but, assured that he wasn’t going to be punished or whatever, Aleks didn’t pay any more attention. His body hurt, his head still ached, the cold was soothing and annoying all at once, and he just wanted to sleep - so he did.

-

The compresses were room temperature when he woke up, sticking to his skin uncomfortably. He peeled the one from his eyes carefully, blinking them open to reveal an empty room, the lights off and the dark of the night peeking in through the drawn curtains of the window.

There was a glass of water and two pain pills on the bedside table and he took them easily, grabbing his phone after he’d drained the glass. Someone had pulled it out of his bag and put it on the charger.

 _We found them_ , Sly had sent two hours ago, around midnight.

 _Nova fucked them up homie_ , he had sent an hour after the first.

There was a third text from someone named James - a contact he had no recollection making. This was a burner phone; it had Sly, Seamus and Kootra - his partner, his medic, and the guy they got their orders from - saved and that was it.

 _Fucking call me next time you fuck - nova_ , it read.

Aleks, feeling something...weird in his stomach, said _shit man_ to Sly and _thanks_ to Nova - _James_? - and then just fucking went back to sleep. He was too fucked up for this shit.

-

“And then he was all _don’t fuck with my crew_ ,” Sly recounted, for what may have been the third time that morning, pointing at Aleks with his fork - representing the deagle _James_ had been using during the Hub’s trip across town to the warehouse where Aleks’ attackers had been hiding out, “And he fucking _shot him in the head_ , man!”

“Sick,” Aleks couldn’t help but smile, amused at the excitement Sly was displaying over a fucking execution. Maybe they’d both been a little too desensitized to death at this point, but Aleks doubted he could so calmly watch someone fucking assassinate someone else and Aleks had done some cold-hearted shit. Still, Aleks couldn’t be anything but grateful - this time yesterday, he’d been more terrified than he’d been since Mama Graire had said _I’m a cop_ , absolutely certain that it would be _him_ with the .44 rounds in his head instead of the guy that beat his ribs in. Scared that he would be dragging Sly into the shit with him.

“ _Sick_ is right,” Sly finished off his bowl of cereal, “Nova’s pretty chill.”  
“ _Chill_ might be a stretch,” Aleks scoffed, but didn’t say anything else. His phone, heavy in his pocket, still had James’ number in it. Part of him wanted to delete it - just out of hurt pride, maybe, or nerves. The more rational part of him kept that urge in check; having _Nova’s_ number could only be an asset to him at this point. “They got the money back, though?”  
“And your car,” Sly nodded, “Plus some other shit. Turns out that gang has been targeting people from big crews like the Hub and killing them so they can take all their shit. You’re the first one they left alive.”  
“It was probably an accident,” Aleks took a drink of his water, “They saw my pasty ass and thought I was already dead.”

“You do look like a walking corpse,” Sly agreed and ducked the doughnut Aleks chucked at his head, laughing. “What!? You said it, not me,”

“You didn’t have to agree with me, asshole,” Aleks scowled, but couldn’t hold it for long in the face of Sly mocking his face in return

Sly loaded his bowl and spoon into the dishwasher - almost completely full, most of their meagre dishes dirty but neither of them caring enough to run it just yet - while Aleks went to retrieve the doughnut he’d thrown. It was a...process, bending over, that he eventually solved by crouching slowly and grabbing the damn thing off the floor.

He was still crouching when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out as he was standing and swiped to unlock it, raising an eyebrow when he saw a new text from Nova.

_Drag your asses to hq, sp00n and i are playing mario kart and we need another team._

“Um,” He turned to Sly, just as another message popped up.

_If you can move that is. You already got your ass kicked once this week._

And, yeah, okay, so his body was sore and stiff as fuck, but he wasn’t gonna let _Nova_ know that. It was fuckin’ on.

“Sly, we’re going to HQ.”

“Why?” Sly blinked at him, “Something up?”  
“Spoon and Nova want to play Mario Kart.”

“You want us to drive half an hour across the city so we can play video games with Nova and Spoon?”  
“That’s what I said,” Aleks agreed, grabbing his jacket from the back of the chair, “You in or what?”

“Fuck you, I’m in,” Sly scoffed and grabbed his own jacket from the counter.

HQ was otherwise empty when they showed up, mashing the keycode in and meeting up with Spoon in the front room. Nova was waiting in one of the back rooms, relaxed and clicking through the menu options of Mario Kart.

“One beating not enough for you, huh?” He called when he saw the three of them, nodding in greeting.

“Immortal doesn’t know when to quit,” Sly smirked, dodging Aleks’ retaliation and grabbing the recliner. Spoon dropped into the other chair, leaving the other side of the couch Nova was sitting on for Aleks to ease himself into. Aleks winced as he set, but got comfortable relatively quickly and accepted the controller from Nova with a nod of his own.

They played for a long time - at some point the others showed up, Spoon switched out with Kootra switched out with Seamus switched back to Spoon for a few rounds and then a break was had while Sly went to the kitchen with Ze to make food for everyone in punishment for losing. He brought a plate of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets back to Aleks without comment but made everyone else go get their own. Aleks appreciated it, wanted to avoid moving as much as possible when he could, and he thanked him by letting Sly lap him _twice_ in the next race.

He ended up sharing the plate with James, anyway.

They both went home exhausted and happy, Aleks tired enough that he didn’t even try to keep his eyes open during the car ride. He couldn’t be sure that he didn’t pass out between HQ and home, but he didn’t need Sly’s help getting up the stairs so that was enough in his book to constitute self-sufficiency and he let Sly help him get his jacket and shirt off without fucking his ribs over too hard before bed. His chest and back were still a molten mess of blacks and purples, the deepest colors around his ribs and spine, but it was better than it would have been without the cream Sly had rubbed in the night before.

It was while Sly was out of the room, brushing his teeth or some shit, that Aleks’ phone buzzed again.

 _You weren’t so bad immortal_ , James had sent, _Rematch next week_?

 _You’re on_ , he sent back and then, before he could stop himself, _and my name is Aleksandr. You can call me Aleks._

James responded within five minutes.

 _I’ll be kicking your ass next friday aleks_.

Aleks read the text and then plugged his nearly dead phone in to charge for the night, popped two more pain pills to help him sleep and laid down with a warm compress for his ribs.

He didn’t notice until he relaxed that he’d been smiling.

 


End file.
